I can't put my finger on it, but there's something somewhat endearing about a few of those covers, especially the bottom three. It's like someone completely incompetent really trying to create a work of mystique (kind of like their "fake" albums); we can at least smile at the effort.

I mean... half the images look like they came from a textbook (seriously, the food displays are like the images seen in every science and nutrition textbook from my years in middle/high school). It's such a phoned-in coffee table "grindcore collage" album cover that it's just embarrassing.____________________________

Also, that Pungent Stench cover is great! Tasteless, yeah, but also effective... it has a genuine ugliness that saves it from being just plain old tacky, and I can appreciate that.____________________________

Even though I like Nuit Noire a lot, this album art is incredibly cheap-looking:

I guess it's reminiscent of LLN/French BM with its photocopied appearance, but it literally looks like the images were laid out on spreadsheet paper... um, wat.

The photos themselves are pretty silly, too... though I suppose they are fitting, considering the bands image/themes.

I don't want to go looking for any examples of this, but I think you all know them well enough: those countless goregrind/pornogrind album covers that are just goatse or tubgirl or 2girls1cup etc with the band's illegible logo copied and pasted onto it. I can't criticize them for being disgusting/offensive, because that's kind of the point, but I can criticize them for being fucking lazy.

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gomorro wrote:

Fortunately the seminar started and when it finished, I runed away like if Usain Bolt were about to rape me.

A lot of "worst album covers ever" lists I've seen have Dawn of the Black Hearts as the cover. I really wouldn't put it in that position since it's a bootleg and it wasn't Mayhem's idea to use the picture of brainless Dead for it, but I can see how people would be shocked/offended by it.

I think it's the best black metal album cover ever released, without taking the bootleg aspect into consideration. And I think Dead would have loved to know that his body would be pictured in such a position. I hate gore pictures, but for some reason, the disgusting aspect is transcended on this cover. Death is plainly aetheticized, and that's what about original Mayhem was all about.

I agree with Poisonfume... what the hell were they thinking when they decided to use that skin disease afflicted cunnilingus addict. (not to diss the art of cunnilingus but please don't use it as your album cover)

Weirdness for weirdness' sake... I enjoy their albums immensely, but their coverart always sucked. It ranged from "pretty unremarkable and nondescript" (on "Expositionsprophylaxe") to, well, this. It's almost as if the label doesn't want you to buy this, it's that ugly...

This could be good, but the framing of the pic and the choice of awful title-font and -color ruin it completely...

It's... red. I'm not even shure what I'm looking at there. Puked genitals? I couldn't tell.

Good music inside, but a definitive example of how ludicrous trends from 25+ years ago look today. I had a friend who what a shirt of this album, really confused me why he would want something so ugly on his body.

This one is more confusing than ugly. It took me forever to figure out exactly what the picture was depicting, and finding out that they were severed hands didn't really bring any peace of mind. Is this some sort of medieval torture? Being hung by your hands and then they're cut off and left swinging in the wind? Seriously, if someone knows what this is supposed to be, tell me.

I don't really expect anyone to know this one, they're a band from the Philippines that asked me to review the album. The music isn't too bad, but the cover... uhh.... I've realized that the album art is so bad that it makes me listen to the album less than I should be, which isn't really fair to the band.

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Varth wrote:

I am getting pissed thinking about all the dumbass fake punk my sister made me listen to

I don't really expect anyone to know this one, they're a band from the Philippines that asked me to review the album. The music isn't too bad, but the cover... uhh.... I've realized that the album art is so bad that it makes me listen to the album less than I should be, which isn't really fair to the band.

Well, they asked me to review their album as well But it's only now that I'm looking at their artwork closely! Holyshit, that's weird.

I'm a bit lazy (and my Internet is slow) to go quote those who commented on the Post Mortem album I posted.Heh, to each their own I guess. The music is completely the opposite to what the cover may imply by the way.

Oh! And how could I forget the beloved Immortal and their numerous covers in this style

I mean...they are definitely not good looking, they don't look badass and their imagery is not the coolest thing they have come up with (that's their music). So why do they insist in putting pictures of themselves glaring at you or someone behind?

Of course, a lot of bands have done worse, but it's specially boring when you consider they could and HAVE offered you stuff like this before.

Now, THAT'S cool cover art.

...Of course, boring cover pictures seemed to be an Abbath thing...maybe he wants to prove that his albums are all about the music inside?

What the fuck is this sloppy mess supposed to be? I barely make a face out in the middle but that's probably my mind matrixing making me think it's something. and it's just so pixalated. that picture looks better than the actual album in my hand.

"We finished recording but we still need some cover art...""Just take a picture of the paneling at my house and throw the logo on it""fuck, works for me"

UGH

edit: There are a handful of covers in here that I actually like, some because I don't think they are bad, others because it's part of the charm cause they are so derped.And I find it funny how people going X album rocks, I don't care about the cover... yea we know there are plenty of good albums listed... we are talking about the artwork.

More children. My guess is that since a lot of these prog metal bands like to be all about getting in touch with our emotions so we can all feel better about ourselves (*insert George Carlin jacking off stage motion here*), the children are supposed to represent innocence. Doesn't make it less of a crock of shit.

For the prog-metal ones; the Pain of Salvation one fits the concept, and the LTE one is just a bunch of guys jamming so they probably put as much work into the cover art as they did the song arrangements. It's still not terrible.